A datfile is technically a UNIX file system directory that contains a descriptor file and a data file. The common intermediate file format used as a starting point for the formatter is based on the "datfile" standard. Therefore, they are first transferred into a common intermediate ASCII-based format developed for the Newspace project. The articles all come in electronic form, but there is no established standard format. The Newspace project receives approximately 3000 articles a day from around 10 different sources. Margins are minimal, and the overall impression is "dark". There is a minimum of white space, and headline fonts are often condensed. Newspapers use a high word density while legibility suffers. Before it selects the number of columns, the formatter should know what headline font is to be used-we're back where we started.Īnother dilemma one faces when formatting text is legibility vs. To know the width of an article the formatter must know the number of columns. For example, when selecting which headline font to use, it is, among other things, important to know how wide the article will be. Typography is a key issue.Ī general problem when formatting news articles is that not all information is available when one needs it.
The formatted "image" contains elements of the newspaper metaphor, e.g., a headline, source indication, columns etc. The purpose of the formatting process is to take an ASCII-based text, with optional illustrations, and render it into a pixmap that can directly be displayed on a bit-mapped computer screen.
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